Filmtracks: Hook (John Williams)


Williams

Hook: (John Williams) Despite the magic inherent in its story, Hook became the epitome of a major studio production disaster. So much passion was poured into the concept by so many imaginative minds and yet, in the watered down movie that resulted, all of that enthusiasm had drained from the spirit of the film and critics appropriately commented that Hook seemed mechanical in its style. Before anything resembling the final picture was undertaken, composer John Williams and his friend and lyricist Leslie Bricusse (with whom Williams had collaborated on songs as far back as Goodbye, Mr. Chips in 1969) had worked in 1985 on a stage musical of Hook's story, but the project was cancelled after the two had completed ten songs. Three years later, director Nick Castle rearranged the story into a script for the big screen, but TriStar removed Castle from directing duties after the final re-write of Hook and replaced him with Steven Spielberg. The ever popular Spielberg, whose artistic prowess was slightly diminished after falling from the pinnacle of success he experienced in the previous decade, was a logical choice for TriStar. The director had always harbored a fascination with the Peter Pan story and had intended at some point to direct a sequel to the tale that very much resembled the premise of Hook. Additionally, he obviously had a strong working relationship with Williams, who naturally adapted much of his work from the failed 1985 concept into the screen translation. Spielberg had also been fascinated with the idea of creating musicals, for the Peter Pan story or otherwise, but by the time of his involvement with Hook, the musical formula had been dumped in favor of a regular live-action feature with a traditional score. The $80 million cost of Hook eventually bought a strong cast and, mostly, spectacular sets. The busy art direction, however, betrayed the film and became one of its weaknesses, as did many of the big-name supporting actors. The film lacked the spark of life that everyone expected from an imaginative Spielberg offering, and his seeming loss of enthusiasm somewhere along the line also carried over to several of the other production elements.

Luckily, one of the few aspects of Hook not to suffer from this malaise was Williams' music, despite the fact that the composer had been forced to abandon the original musical format of much of his material. Long after the muddled film became an asterisk in Spielberg's career (as well as one of note for Gwyneth Paltrow, for whom Hook was her first major studio film), Williams' massive score endures as one of his fans' favorites. Of the original songs he conjured with Bricusse, two appeared relatively unscathed in Hook (and another became a source piece). Many of the remainder were adapted by the maestro into themes for various elements of the story, which explains why so many of his ideas in the score are so lyrical in nature. As Williams stated in 1992, "I used music which could be also named 'theatrical' or 'ballet music.' When Peter Pan manages to fly, the orchestra plays music that reminds us of a very fast dance of a ballet. The same in the Ultimate War sequence. The music follows the rhythm of the picture, underlines the action. Somebody makes an intense move and the orchestra follows him with an emphasis, like the strings. Somebody else is dreaming and the orchestra describes the sense of this dream. In other words, my music for Hook doesn't abstain from that of a cartoon, where the music has to be attached in the picture." In light of these comments, listeners shouldn't be surprised by frequent comparisons between parts of this score and Tchaikovsky's tunes for "The Nutcracker." Still, Williams was no stranger to films that used a dozen combined themes and motifs, and Hook went so far as to push twenty distinct representations. This luxury of specific identity for so many parts of the story causes the score to be among the most interesting and sustaining of the composer's career. As an adventure score, it romps with some of the most exhilarating swashbuckling tones to come from Hollywood in the Digital Age. As a children's score, it moves with the grace and sincerity of Home Alone. As a dramatic score, it offers extended sequences of weighty beauty in its latter half. The realm of fantasy obviously inspires Williams, and Spielberg's involvement only amplifies that belief. "This area, the area of fantasy," Williams continues, "is the best one that can exist for music."

The disjointed film, jumping from location to location, modern to mythical, forced upon Williams the burden of not only using so many of his previous ideas for the concept, but also required a plethora of differing styles rolled into those themes. To successfully keep pace with the frenetic movement and countless characters of the film, Williams composed an enormous mass of music for the production, and much of it foreshadowed several scores still to come from his pen. Pieces were interpreted from Home Alone and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, and much of the undeveloped material would later blossom in Far and Away, Jurassic Park, and even Star Wars: The Phantom Menace. In retrospect, Hook seems as though it was fertile testing ground for countless new ideas from Williams, some of which reaching a spectacular maturity in the score while others were simply rambling teasers. The two 1985 songs directly adapted into Hook include "We Don't Wanna Grow Up" and "When You're Alone." The first is translated into an obnoxious source piece for a grade school performance near the start of the film. The latter earned Williams a surprising Oscar nomination, doubling as the orchestral theme for Peter's kids. The remainder of the score's themes have never been confirmed as either being connected to the 1985 songs or not, but nobody can claim that the primary title theme for Hook isn't among the composer's most impressive creations. Williams translated this theme into a 90-second fanfare for the film's beautiful, unique, map-traveling theatrical trailer, a rare occasion when a preview does the honor of introducing the film's eventual theme in glorious fashion. Williams doesn't often do this; in fact, the next time he would attempt such a feat would come ten years later for Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. The trailer cue is entitled "Prologue" on the album for Hook, and it has been argued as being the best minute and a half Williams has ever composed, even when included with all of his more famous efforts. So flighty and energetic is the swashbuckling attitude of this theme and its rowdy arrangement that it sets an elevated standard that the rest of the score has difficulty maintaining. Fortunately, it comes close, which is all that's necessary to earn it the label of modern classic.

Outside of the trailer, the memorable title theme for Hook exists most prominently at 8:50 into "Remembering Childhood" (the most powerful ensemble performance on the remainder of the album) and about a minute into "The Ultimate War." Often associated with the title theme is Williams' representation of flying. This "flying theme" is a jovial and often rousing piece that receives its first swell of excitement from the full ensemble at 5:05 into "The Arrival of Tink and Flight to Neverland." It had existed previously as an appropriately slight hint in "Granny Wendy" (at 1:25) before unseating the title theme as the most prevalent idea in the pivotal "Remembering Childhood" (at 5:10 and 9:10) and "Farewell Neverland" (at 7:55 and 8:55) cues. In the former, a somber solo piano supplants the "childhood memory theme" as an equally effective reminder of innocence lost. The nature of this piano performance suggests heavily that this theme could easily have originated in song form. The "childhood memory theme" is one of lament for the older Peter Pan, and it contributes much of the melancholy melodrama in the score's second half. A flourish of theme explodes at the two minute mark in "From Mermaids to Lost Boys" and anchors "Remembering Childhood" with solo performances passed around the woodwind section starting at 3:00. A lush string rendition of the theme exists at 0:15 into "Farewell Neverland" and continues for two minutes. A particularly attractive secondary phrase to this theme also suggests possible song origins. The theme for Peter's kids, as mentioned already, is the basis for the "When You're Alone" song. The reminiscing parts of "Remembering Childhood" touch upon this theme (immediately at the start of the cue) before fragments compliment "Farewell Neverland" at the very start of that cue and at 7:25. Although the entire score for Hook can easily be described as a raucous and spirited ride, these three softer themes dominate the film's lengthy reflective sequences. The serious family side of Home Alone is prevalent in these portions, but Williams also uses a lofty choir to punctuate these moments of innermost feelings, a technique rare in the composer's career. Both "You are the Pan" and "Farewell Neverland" provide mesmerizing choral performances that are spectacular counterpoint to the dynamic action otherwise heard during the swashbuckling scenes.

Several less important, but sometimes equally compelling secondary themes exist throughout Hook. The cute woodwind-driven theme for Captain Hook and his sidekick Smee is a page taken directly from the Home Alone formula for bumbling villains. The slight waltz rhythm to this theme is very attractively fleshed out in the entirety of "Smee's Plan" with the kind of emphasis on instrumental creativity later heard in The Terminal. The other, faster and more robust announcement of this theme bursts with truly cartoonish exuberance at 1:55 in "Presenting the Hook," building to a frenzied ensemble crescendo. That cue also offers two subthemes for Hook and Smee's pirate gang. The first, heard at 0:20, is a jolly Irish jig that foreshadows Far and Away, while the second, starting at 1:20, is a sly bass woodwind rhythm accompanied by great viola or fiddle counterpoint (and a touch of owl-like sound effects). Together, these two pirate-related tracks on the Hook album are something of a guilty pleasure because of their affable character and break of pace. A pretty theme for the film's other major character, Tinkerbell, is teased at the start of "We Don't Wanna Grow Up" before its usual xylophone likeness is presented at 1:55 into "The Arrival of Tink and Flight to Neverland" and at 5:20 into "Farewell Neverland." This theme truly does shamelessly rip a page from Home Alone. A less utilized theme for Wendy, her home, and the concept of redemption is introduced early and quietly on flute and bells in "Granny Wendy" and doesn't return in a major role until "Farewell Neverland." Likely a "redemption theme" more than one specifically for Wendy, this idea is heard in ensemble performances at 6:00, 8:25, and 9:15 in the finale cue, the last of which serving as the monumentally dramatic closing of the entire score. The snowy London setting seen during this cue is yet another reminder of Home Alone. Among the many lesser themes, the "lost boys theme" exists, understandably, throughout "The Lost Boy Chase" (starting immediately) and the "banquet/food" theme is a playful tune heard for full ensemble in "The Banquet" and at 1:15 in "The Never-Feast." The role of the brass in this theme is remarkable, including a delightful tuba solo at 1:50 into "The Banquet." Other motifs come and go, though none are particularly vital on the commercial album.


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The action cues in Hook often extend these themes to forceful ranks, led by the 20-minute powerhouse "The Ultimate War," which had to be cut down to eight minutes to fit onto the commercial album. This rumbling, timpani-pounding action material moves with the same layered complexity and frantic pace that would prevail in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, though the perpetually unpredictable turns of events in Hook don't allow the themes in these cues many luxuries of extended performances. Other notable individual moments in the score include the sound effect of birds at 2:25 in "From Mermaids to Lost Boys" and other creative dubs of such things in other places. The French horn counterpoint in the early choral part of "You are the Pan" is extremely memorable. Less impressive is how the score begins. In the film, you don't hear any orchestral underscore for ten minutes, and it's not until the first flight cue that the music has an appreciable impact. The same can be said about the commercial album. The Dave Grusin-like urban jazz in "Banning Back Home" is truly hideous and needs to be ignored, despite the fact that it adds another theme to the list. Only when the Harry Potter-like mystery of "Hook-Napped" explores hints of the title theme does the score start to cook. Overall, however, Hook is somewhat of a hidden gem due to the sinking of the film after a short initial burst at the box office. Williams did not expect to win an Oscar for his nominations for JFK or Hook, understanding that Beauty and the Beast was an unstoppable force that year ("Choosing Beauty and the Beast was closer to Hollywood tradition and less risky for all. I'm used to choices like that," he said at the time). The Epic Soundtrax album's first pressing was one of the most flawed endeavors ever to haunt a Williams score, failing to include technical or engineering information, credits, notes, or even track titles on the packaging because of its last minute assembly. Fans unhappy with the 75-minute editing of the score (which really isn't that bad, all things considered), have treated themselves to bootlegs that have extended the music to over 4 CDs. Despite all the problems with the film and the soundtrack, the music for Hook remains one of the most thematically diverse, robust, and beautiful scores of the 1990's. It would be the final great children's score for Williams in the century. *****

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